The LeRoy Memorial Arena succumbed to a scorching death May 10 when a fire blazed through the structure.
Now all that remains of the community's beloved arena, a building that had stood for over 60 years, is a charred pile of rubble.
"It's certainly the biggest fire to ever happen in LeRoy," said Morris Hartman, a longtime resident of the town and one of the volunteer firefighters on the scene Friday night.
"Maybe the biggest thing to ever happen here, actually," he added.
The fire was reported at 7:45 p.m, with volunteer firefighters from the neighbouring districts such as Humboldt and Englefeld responding to the call, and EMS from LeRoy and Watson on the scene.
Firefighters worked arduously to contain the flames as the roof collapsed into itself, debris falling everywhere.
The arena, which was unoccupied at the time, went down in about an hour.
"It's going to cost about $5.5 million to rebuild," LeRoy Mayor Brian Thoen said.
"It's insured but we don't know for how much yet," he added.
As is the case in many rural Canadian towns, a local hockey arena plays a pivotal role in the community as a place that brings residents together, whether it's on the ice playing shinny or sitting up in the stands sipping hot coffee.
According to the town's website, the arena was considered the "heart of the community".
"Many volunteer hours have been put into the building, renovation and operation of the facility," read a news release distributed by the Town of LeRoy.
It went on to list numerous organizations that played out of the arena, like the local figure skating club and three minor hockey teams.
The back end of the arena was built in 1950, while the front end was renovated in 1987.
Heading into the investigation as to the cause of the fire, investigators are still unsure if the age of the arena played a part.
"All the water that firefighters were spraying onto the flames was shot back off the tin roof, so everything had an equal chance to burn," said Trent Catley of Saskatchewan's Emergency Management and Fire Safety department.
Because of that, the large-scale size of the debris has left more questions than answers before the preliminary investigation begins.
"We'll be comparing burns and following the wiring to try and figure out what caused this," Catley said Monday.
"There's about 10 fires a day in Saskatchewan, so this could just be another freak accident like the rest of them."
